In the Neural Matrix, the Neural Data digits plummet like a hacked stock ticker, crashing from 90 to 80, then 60, 40, and finally stalling at a razor-thin 20. That’s the bare minimum to keep his brain from frying—word is, dip any lower, and your skull pops like a goddamn grenade.
As the Neural Data burns away, Orren’s Energy Slash skill rockets upward, surging with lethal precision. Neural Overclock drags every moment he’s swung that blade screaming back, his hyperclocked brain catching gritty details he’d never clocked before.
[Insight Unlocked: Your Energy Slash has leveled up from Lv1 to Lv2]
“Holy shit, is this what an overclocked brain feels like? Fucking euphoric!” Orren’s heart pounds with glee—this high’s a thousand times better than sneaking weed behind the high school bleachers.
But that’s just the start. As Neural Overclock digs deeper, his mind sparks with new riffs on Energy Slash.
[Insight Unlocked: Your Energy Slash has leveled up from Lv2 to Lv3]
…
[Insight Unlocked: Your Energy Slash has leveled up from Lv4 to Lv6]
…
[Insight Unlocked: Your Energy Slash has leveled up from Lv8 to Lv10]
…
[Your Energy Slash skill has maxed out at Lv10, but you sense this blade art’s limits aren’t reached. You attempt to refine it further… and fail.]
Orren lies sprawled on the filth-strewn ground, yanking his Enforcer-issued blade from his belt. This ain’t no ordinary knife—it’s a plasma saber, straight out of a holo-flick. Flick the hilt, and with a thought, a searing laser blade hums to life. A laser for a sword, it cuts like a starship’s cannon.
As a Spark Tier warrior, Orren channels his Neural Chip’s intent to ignite the weapon, syncing his brainwaves to the blade’s nano-circuitry for pinpoint strikes. Energy Slash might be a basic skill, but at Lv10? Even grizzled mercs, hardened by decades of bloodshed, rarely push a skill past Lv6.
Lv10 puts me in the same league as goddamn blade masters. But who the hell grinds a basic skill to Lv10? Orren’s got no clue how nasty this power really is, but screw it—if he’s gonna die, why not go all-in?
On the rubble-choked, grime-slicked street, the massive insectoid Voidspawn bursts from the shattered shack, its scales glinting under flickering streetlights as it stalks toward Orren.
“Fucking knew it—a Voidspawn skulking nearby…”
In a shadowed corner of the ruined street, two pairs of eyes peek from a trash heap, watching the scene with dread and lingering panic. It’s the mother and son who bolted.
“Mom, isn’t Orren Bran a total bastard? Why’d he let us go? If he hadn’t stepped out, we’d never have slipped away,” Drex, the boy, whispers, baffled.
“…Hell if I know,” Elena, his mother, mutters, just as lost. It’s beyond comprehension—first, that syringe didn’t kill Orren, and then he just… left? Was that damn neuro-dust a cheap knockoff? Fake drugs? That’s the Ironveil slums for you. But why Orren bailed? They can’t wrap their heads around it.
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Doesn’t matter now. To the mother and son, this freak Enforcer’s as good as dead. He’s about to get chomped by that filthy bug and shat out as a stinking pile of rot.
Other slum-dwellers, hidden in the shadows, watch through grainy surveillance feeds, grinning at the thought of Orren getting what’s coming to him. But under their gaze, a silver flash slices the grimy street, cold and blinding!
Orren rises from the corner, gripping his humming laser blade. The monster’s pained screech rips through the air as background noise. Its whip-like tongue, slimy and barbed, is hacked clean off by Orren’s strike, black ichor gushing like a busted pipe, splattering the street with a rancid stench.
“Raaagh!” The beast’s agonized howl engulfs half the street, its compound eyes too slow to track the blade’s arc or when Orren even drew.
“What the hell just happened?”
“How’d he do that?”
Everyone watching is floored. Drex nearly yelps, but Elena, stunned, clamps his mouth shut just in time.
In their disbelieving stares, Orren’s lean frame charges the monster, a feral glint in his eyes. His laser sword thrusts forward, lightning-fast, aiming for the beast’s pulsing heart. The bug panics, scrambling to dodge. But Orren’s stab is a feint—at the last second, he twists into an impossible angle, shifting from thrust to a brutal slash!
Shlick! Shlick!
Two phantom-fast cuts. The bug’s barrel-thick tendrils, writhing like living cables, are severed, flopping to the ground in a frenzy of spasms, oozing black gore. The monster’s screams turn shrill, raw with terror. It’s losing its shit. This puny human, outclassed in size and strength, somehow makes its raw power feel useless!
That’s the might of a Lv10 skill! Orren’s a goddamn master of Energy Slash!
Orren stomps on the beast’s blood-slicked carapace, his hands rock-steady as he rips the laser sword from its heart, black ichor spraying like a geyser. First time killing a monster, yet the slaughter feels etched into his bones, like he’s done it a million times. Drenched in reeking black plasma, the nauseating stench should have him puking, but his body stays eerily calm.
A Lv10 basic skill is this fucking strong? Orren’s heart races with thrill. This was a Lv3 Voidspawn! He figured even if he could win, it’d be a brutal slog, costing him blood and bone. But the result? Way beyond his wildest bets. Killing this thing was almost too damn easy.
“He actually killed that Voidspawn… holy shit, he’s unreal!” Drex’s eyes shine with awe.
“So this scumbag was hiding that kind of power… but why…” Elena’s shocked, her mind tangled in doubt.
Orren slumps against a wall, panting hard, scrubbing the foul stains off his gear. Killing the bug was a breeze, but unease gnaws at him. Burning all that Neural Data—those side effects are gonna hit like a freight train, right?
But the next second, the Neural Matrix pings, and Orren’s jaw drops in stunned joy!
Neural Matrix: Loot Scan
Alert: Voidspawn has dropped loot—Neural Crystal. Absorb to restore lost Neural Data.
What the hell? He can recover Neural Data?
Orren’s heart leaps, and he scrambles through the monster’s corpse, digging past shattered chitin and pulpy brain matter until he finds it—a tiny, shimmering crystal, glowing with faint purple pulses like a trapped star. He wipes the crystal clean, and before the side effects can kick in, he swallows it whole.
Neural Matrix: Orren Bran
Status
? Class: Neural Hunter
? Level: Spark Tier - Level 1
? Neural Data: 150/200
Equipment
? Standard Energy Blade
? Standard Energy Pistol
Cyber Skills
? Energy Slash Lv1 (Basic Blade Strike)
? Firearms Use Lv2 (Basic)
Special Skill: Neural Overclock
? [Can Overload Neural Data to boost skill levels.]
? [Cannot Overclock if Neural Data falls below 20 points.]
? [Current Neural Data: 150 points]
Neural Data at 150? Higher than his old 90, and the storage cap’s jacked up too? Holy fucking shit! Not only are those side effects he was sweating not happening, he’s come out stronger?
He’s got no clue what extra Neural Data does yet. But it’s gotta be good, right? Word is, 100 Neural Data keeps a normal person sharp and tireless. So these extra 50 points? Free ammo to burn on leveling skills!
